Texas mother hangs herself, 3 children

[SpookyWriter]

Why?

Texas has seen a number of child killings by mothers in recent years.


Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_on_re_us/children_killed)

[kristie911]

How sad. I wonder what must go through these mother's heads before they commit an act like this. It's horrible and sad. I couldn't imagine wanting to harm my child.

[SpookyWriter]

How sad. I wonder what must go through these mother's heads before they commit an act like this. It's horrible and sad. I couldn't imagine wanting to harm my child.


Estrada's trailer was dilapidated, with paint peeling off the brown and white mobile home. Cactus plants and a rose bush decorated the front. Toys and a bicycle littered the back yard.
Could poverty be a cause? Why didn't she seek help? There are county and state programs to help people on low-income budgets.


Texas has seen a number of child killings by mothers in recent years.
Less than five years earlier, another Hudson Oaks family was torn apart when Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, before killing herself.
How does a parent justify these murders in their hearts?

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.These are violent acts against children. Shocking!

[RLB]

Ugh. These stories are just tragic.

The other four women mentioned in the article were all found innocent by reason of insanity. I wonder if this one will go the same way?

[SpookyWriter]

Ugh. These stories are just tragic.

The other four women mentioned in the article were all found innocent by reason of insanity. I wonder if this one will go the same way?I doubt it, see she hung herself.

[RLB]

Whoops. It's getting late! I shouldn't post after midnight.

[kristie911]

She had an infant and had just separated from her husband following an incidence of domestic violence. I'm guessing postpartum depression or some other mental illness. Maybe she didn't realize she needed help...it's hard for women to admit when they need help. And if she was working and was the sole income, she may not have had the ability to seek out help, even if she realized she needed it. It's tragic.

It is curious that all those sited cases were from Texas. Have there been more, just not in Texas that weren't mentioned? Or is it some sort of epidemic confined to that state?

[SpookyWriter]

She had an infant and had just separated from her husband following an incidence of domestic violence. I'm guessing postpartum depression or some other mental illness. Maybe she didn't realize she needed help...it's hard for women to admit when they need help. And if she was working and was the sole income, she may not have had the ability to seek out help, even if she realized she needed it. It's tragic.

It is curious that all those sited cases were from Texas. Have there been more, just not in Texas that weren't mentioned? Or is it some sort of epidemic confined to that state?That's a good point. I wondered the same thing after reading the article. I wonder if this problem isn't a national epidemic.

See the problem with local reporting of these types of events is that we don't get a sense of a trend. Is is just a few cities, counties, states, in the U.S. Or is there more to the problem than we realize.

Remember, the children. Why is this becoming (or is it) more frequent?

Questions.

[blacbird]

Is there something in the water in Texas?

caw

[SpookyWriter]

Is there something in the water in Texas?

cawHa! This coming from someone in Alaska who has a thread dedicated to the mouse in the state house. :D

[ModoReese]

How does a parent justify these murders in their hearts?




Some mothers believe they are "saving" their children from the hell that is earth. Some believe their children cannot survive without them.

I believe there was a Japanese immigrant many years ago who killed her kids before she tried to kill herself, because culturally it was a "sin" to leave the children behind to be a burden to others.

These mothers aren't thinking clearly -- I'm sure in their minds they are helping their kids by killing them.

Scary what your mind can tell you.

Michelle

[dclary]

Why?


Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_on_re_us/children_killed)

Texas has no monopoly on this.

[scarletpeaches]

These mothers aren't thinking clearly -- I'm sure in their minds they are helping their kids by killing them.

Scary what your mind can tell you.

Michelle

Seconded.

As someone once said to me regarding manic depression - "Whatever the depression tells you, don't listen - it lies."

[Alvah]

Ugh. These stories are just tragic.

The other four women mentioned in the article were all found innocent by reason of insanity. I wonder if this one will go the same way?


If a man had committed the same murders, would he have been found "innocent" by reason of insanity?

[kristie911]

If a man had committed the same murders, would he have been found "innocent" by reason of insanity?

I'm going to say no way. Father's don't get postpartum depression.

Though nothing suprises me anymore when it comes to juries...who the hell knows what they'd come up with.

[Jersey Chick]

At least one of the children survived. It's too tragic for words, really.

I wonder if it's an epidemic, or simply that news really travels fast these days.

I also can't imagine hurting my children. Not. Ever. I can't even imagine what sort of state of mind that woman had to be in - it's terrible. Truly terrible.

[Alvah]

[quote=kristie911;1370419]I'm going to say no way. Father's don't get postpartum depression.

Granted, but men can be depressed, or have other causes of emotional instability. The postpartum depression defense is based in the principle that a woman committed horrific acts because of some chemical imbalance in her brain or hormonal functions. Men can also have chemical imbalances, for other reasons.

So, if a man committed the same terrible murders, would he be found "innocent" by reason of insanity?

In other words, are men and women judged by the same standard?
Should they be?

[Jersey Chick]

Well, postpartum depression is linked directly to the flood of hormones released after birth. After my daughter was born and we came home from the hospital, for the first day or two, I cried over the stupidest things. I mean, like cheesy Hallmark commercials. And I'm not a crier normally. In most cases it passes, but not always, and sometimes it leads to postpartum psychosis.

I don't think you could judge men on the same standard simply due to biology and physiology. They aren't the same.

[kristie911]

I just believe that it's more likely for a woman to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Probably because postpartum depression, etc is more widely known about and talked about then other forms of depression (such as a man might suffer from).

Not to mention, I think men would be more likely to kill their children and then commit suicide...at least that's what I normally hear about when it happens. It seems men would be more likely to kill their children (or whole family) out of desperation than out of depression.

[astonwest]

Texas has no monopoly on this.Indeed... (http://growingupcrazy.com/cases.htm)

[Tiger]

Maybe a cultural componant.

In Japan, such sui/homocides were once performed by women who--for whatever reasons--felt they had no choice. The children went along because death was supposedly better than being deprived of a mother.